Semites, Iranians, Greeks and Romans: Studies in Their Interactions(review)Peter W. Flint

Journal of Early Christian Studies, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1993,pp. 85-86 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University PressDOI: 10.1353/earl.0.0175

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Book Reviews

Jonathan A. GoldsteinSemites, Iranians, Greeks and Romans: Studies in TheirInteractions.Brown Judaic Studies 217.Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. Pp. + 257

Jonathan Goldstein is best known among scholars of the Bible, early Judaism andnascent Christianity for his books on 1 and 2 Maccabees in the Anchor Bible series.In this volume of collected essays and reviews he provides a panorama of his otherwritings and research over a period of 23 years, ranging from 1966 to 1988. Theeleven articles reveal the author's wide range of interests and expertise, and aredivided into two main sections.

Part One is aptly entitled "Intercultural Borrowing," and contains five essays,two of which deal with intertestamental history. "Jewish Acceptance and Rejectionof Hellenism" proposes that the Jews of Palestine were initially not hostile toHellenism, but came to reject many of its traits as a result of their experiences in the"critical period" (i.e., the oppressive rule of Antiochus IV). In "Tales of the To-biads," Goldstein examines the problems and apparent contradictions in Josephus'account of Joseph the Tobiad and his son Hyrcanus in Book xii of the Antiquities. Inthe remaining three essays of this section, the town of Dura-Europos on the Eu-phrates features prominently. "The Central Composition of the West Wall of theSynagogue of Dura-Europos" deals with the synagogue's religious, historical andarchitectural significance, while "The Syriac Bill of Sale from Dura-Europos" ex-amines P. Dura 28, one of the oldest Syriac papyri (243 ce). Goldstein furnishes anannotated transliteration and translation of the text, a brief synopsis of its grammarand orthography, and a detailed commentary. In "Review of Goodenough," theauthor evaluates vols. IX-XII of Erwin R. Goodenough's renowned Jewish Sym-bols in the Greco-Roman Period, making frequent reference to the Dura syna-gogue. According to Goldstein, Goodenough's "solid achievement" in the twelvevolumes of Jewish Symbols was his comprehensive collection of a vast body offigured remains, which can be ascribed only to Jews, and his demonstration thatthese contain a limited number of motifs, some from Jewish sources and otherclearly pagan in origin.

Part Two, "Religious Resistance to Foreign Rule," contains the remaining sixessays, one of which is "Uruk Prophecy," where Goldstein deals with a fragmentarytablet discovered at Uruk in 1969. This text belongs to a genre of Babylonianliterature for which he proposes the term "present-future prophecy," in preference

86 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES

to "Akkadian prophecy" (A. K. Grayson W. G. Lambert) or "Akkadian apoca-lypse" (W. W. Hallo). Specific intertestamental books are the subject of three moreessays, one of which is self-explanatory: "The Testament of Moses: Its Content, ItsOrigin, and Its Attestation in Josephus. " In "The Date of the Book of Jubilees, " theauthor argues that Jubilees was most probably written between 169 and 167 bce.This contrasts with the dates proposed by R. H. Cares (late in the reign of JohnHyrcanusl [134-104 bce]) and James VanderKam (between 161 [pace Goldstein]and 140 bce). In the "Apocryphal Book of Baruch," Goldstein concludes thatBaruch was translated into Greek from a Hebrew original which was composed bya single author in 163 bce, during the reign of Antiochus V.

The remaining two items focus on the books of Maccabees with which theauthor is so familiar. In his "Review of Doran's Temple Propaganda," Goldsteinexamines Robert Doran's proposals regarding the purpose and character of 2Maccabees. He agrees with several theses: for instance, that the Abridged History(2 Mace 3:115:39) should be viewed in the wider context of ancient Greekhistoriography, and fits the pattern of ancient tales depicting how a god miracu-lously defends his temple and his chosen territory. However, Goldstein is morecritical of other aspects of Doran's book: for example, his treatment of the prefixedletters in 2 Maccabees ( 1:1- 10a and 1:10b-2:18). The final essay in the collectionis entitled "How the Authors in I and II Maccabees Treated the 'Messianic' Prom-ises." In response to the series of disasters accompanying the rule of Antiochus IV,pious Jews produced texts such as Daniel 712 and 1 Enoch 8590, in which thecatastrophes of their own time were predicted and which provided counsel for thepresent and hope for the future. According to Goldstein, the authors of 1 Mac-cabees and the second prefixed letter in 2 Maccabees (1:10b2:18) were aware ofthe predictions of Daniel 712 and Enoch 8590, but disagreed with their messageand thus made no use of them. On the other hand, the author of the AbridgedHistory in 2 Maccabees accepted the revelations contained in Daniel 712, al-though allusions to 1 Enoch in his work are faint and questionable.

A few minor flaws are apparent in this otherwise well-produced book. There arefour separate lists of abbreviations, following chapters 2,4, and 11, and at the endof the volume. Since the author has made "some additions and corrections" to anessentially unrevised book (Preface , pg. x), it would have been possible and usefulto combine these into one comprehensive list for the entire collection. On thetechnical side, several small errors are evident: for example, the lower case numer-als i and ii (pp. 43 and 45) continue with II, IV, V, VI and VII in the upper case (pp.48, 51 and 52). Moreover, two lines from the bottom of page 30 are erroneouslyreproduced on page 31.

Many of Jonathan Goldstein's most significant writings have been brought to-gether in this important collection. It is required reading for those interested in thewritings and history of the intertestamental period, the interaction between Juda-ism and Graeco-Roman culture, and the significance of archaeological remainssuch as the synagogue at Dura-Europos.

Peter W. Flint, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana